CESC vice-chairman Sanjiv Goenka, chairman R. P. Goenka and managing director S. Banerjee in Calcutta on Wednesday. Picture by Kishor Roy Chowdhury

Calcutta, April 21: CESC, the R. P. Goenka-controlled power utility, plans to table yet another proposal for restructuring its loans in a move to prune interest costs further.

The company held an extraordinary general meeting on Wednesday to seek shareholders’ approval for a Rs 50-crore rights issue and a loan recast. Voting on both plans will take place on Thursday.

CESC had a loan component of close to Rs 3,000 crore at the end of 2002-03, with a substantial portion in foreign exchange.

Banks and financial institutions have restructured a portion of the loan, helping the company get back to profit.

Loan restructuring is an ongoing process, vice-chairman Sanjiv Goenka said. After the first round, the average interest rate has come down to around 13.5 per cent annually. “We will go in for a second round of restructuring. We plan to bring down the interest rate further,” he added.

The company tabled a resolution before the shareholders to restructure a Rs 781-crore domestic debt and £18,066,587 in foreign exchange loans. The forex loan was raised by Kleintwort Benson, which was guaranteed by ICICI Bank, Industrial Development Bank of India and IFCI, company secretary Subashis Mitra said.

CESC has to repay forex loans taken from International Finance and Commonwealth Development Corporation and a part of the $70-million floating rate notes, payable in 2007.

“The company has made significant progress in T&D (transmission & distribution) loss and we hope to continue this,” chairman R. P. Goenka said. Goenka’s statement was reiterated by son Sanjiv: “I can pledge the performance will be good.”

Sanjiv Goenka said the company is on the look out for more coal blocks. The development of its only block is in full swing and the company is looking for one or two more.

Earlier, at the court-appointed meeting on the merger of subsidiaries Balagarh Power Company and Cescon with CESC, Subashis Mitra said there was “no purpose in continuing with the subsidiaries since Balagarh is not going to pursue the thermal power project while Cescon was not generating enough business”.